


What remains in the Ashes

by Jordan_C_Wilde



Category: Project Wingman (Video Game)
Genre: Post canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29382969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jordan_C_Wilde/pseuds/Jordan_C_Wilde
Summary: "Monarch, I can't keep up, I can't- I can't"Those were the last words that Robin "Prez" Kou got out before she passed out during the final clash between her pilot Monarch and Crimson One.When she regains consciousness hours later, the world is suddenly an entirely different place and the scent of Ash fills the air.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	What remains in the Ashes

“Prez.”

Someone was calling out to her but they seemed so far away. Her head wasn’t even able to bear the weight of her flight helmet. 

“Hey Prez!” The voice called again, more insistent this time. Her senses were ever so slowly returning to her, as if someone was going along a hallway inside her brain, flipping a row of circuit breakers back on.

“Uuuugh,” she groaned wordlessly,her eyes starting to flit back open. As her vision returned, she found herself slumped as far forwards against her radar console as her harness would allow, her helmet resting against the back of Monarch’s seat.

“Naptime’s over, princess.” the voice reprimanded. Her brain finally kicked into gear and she managed to shift her weight far enough back to slump against the backrest of her own seat. Her head lolled weakly over to her left and she managed to catch a glimpse of the person who had woken her.

It was Monarch, perching lazily on the left hand intake of the F-14. She stared at him in a dazed stupor. For one, she had never heard him talk that much out of his own accord and secondly, her brain still hadn’t processed the events of the past few hours.

As if reading her thoughts, the pilot spoke up again, in a rough, hoarse voice. “You passed out halfway through the fight with Crimson 1.”

That, at the very least, checked out with the flittling images and broken snippets of sound still floating around her brain. She remembered the incessant, practically non-stop beeping of her radar warning receiver as hundreds of missile trails filled the sky. She remembered the red glow of the earth underneath the Cascadian capital splitting open, turning everything they had fought so hard for into ash in an instant. She remembered the crushing G-forces as Monarch and the leader of the federation peacekeeping force, Crimson one, engaged one another over this hell pit.

“What happened?” Prez finally croaked, her mouth feeling as dry as a desert. She didn’t really need to ask, but she wanted to know. She wanted to hear him say it.

Monarch looked at her for a long time before finally raising his gaze to look over her shoulder and at the horizon. Off in the west you could still see the fires that engulfed Presidia even from several hundred miles away.

“It’s all gone to shit.” he finally said solemnly. “Barely managed to get the plane to where we are now. Only silver lining is that Comic, Diplomat, Kaiser and Galaxy all managed to get out of dodge too.”

“Alright, and where exactly are we now?” Prez asked, weakly pawing at the release strap for her helmet. As she was fumbling she noticed a streak of blood running down her face. She must have banged her head after she had passed out, which at least would explain the splitting headache that was beginning to set in.  
“We managed to find a stretch of highway some ways west of Presidia. This is only a temporary solution, though. Kaiser fears that the entire region might erupt following what happened today.” as he spoke, he reached over and undid Prez’s helmet strap with one hand. 

“So the war is finally over.” Prez said incredulously, taking over her helmet with shaking hands and wiping at her forehead with the back of her hand. 

What happened next sent a chill down her spine. Monarch actually laughed, a dry completely mirthless and cold chuckle. “Well there can’t be a war for Cascadian independence if there is no Cascadia left to fight over now, can there?”

His words nearly didn’t register with Prez, the implications so horrible that her brain nearly refused to believe them outright, if it weren’t for the fact that she had been there. Those horrible moments right after the ceasefire had returned to her in perfect clarity.

Those moments when the relief and elation at finally seeing an end to the civil war clashed with the horror as the Cascadian capital beneath them erupted in flames. She had been there when Presidia died, much like Prospero, as the earth opened up beneath it and swallowed the city whole.

“So it’s all been for nothing?” Prez said, her voice starting to waiver under an indescribable cocktail of emotions. “Everything we’ve fought for just gone up in smoke?”

Monarch didn’t say anything. He just looked at her, an unreadable intent in his eyes. In this moment, more so than any before, he seemed almost inhuman to her. An unstoppable force of nature akin to a hurricane that razes everything in its path with cold, single minded efficiency.

Nothing could stand before him, not the might of the Federation Airforce, not the Peacekeeping Forces’s best pilot, not even the horror of witnessing the death of not one but two cities could stop his advance.

“Not yet.” He said, his voice turning as cold as his stare. “We’re not done yet, Robin. We’ve still got a debt to collect here.”

If Prez hadn’t been paying attention before, the use of her given name had her sitting ramrod straight in her seat. She knew exactly what Monarch was talking about and it was that prospect that horrified her the most. “Y-you don’t mean-?”

“Yes.” He said, standing up on the intake, his eyes wandering back to Presidia’s funeral pyre to the west. “Kaiser is gonna have to get out of dodge for a while, along with the others. He tasked me with making sure we can collect on what Stardust and the rest of Cascadia still owes us.”

“But this is madness!” Prez shrieked in horror, springing out of her seat and nearly hitting her head on the open Canopy of the plane. “There is no more Cascadia, Monarch, and we’ll be lucky if there’ll still be a federation in the next couple of days!”  
“Maybe so,” Monarch answered, his eyes refusing to leave the westerly horizon, “but it’s all the same to me. An order is an order and I’m still bound to Kaiser by contract.”

Several silent moments passed, an acrid gust of air ruffling the hairs on Monarch’s head. “I know you don’t want to come with me. Kaiser said it’s your call whether you want to leave the country together with them or not. I think I’ll be fine on my own but still,” he broke off and looked at her.

His aspect had changed entirely from moments before. His ice cold eyes now looked tired and soft and his shoulders slumped as if the weight of the events that had taken place this day was finally catching up with him. “I’d appreciate your support.”

He was right in his assessment. She did not want to stay and she had told him as much before. But she had also promised to stick with him no matter what. But still, she believed him every bit of the way when he said he’d be fine on his own.

Before Prez could utter another word, Monarch had already jumped off the intake and was walking over to where the battered planes of the rest of Hitman Team were resting. “It’s your call Prez,” he said over his shoulder, “I’m gonna be wheels up within the next few hours, you have until then to make up your mind.”

And with that she was alone. She finally got to take in the scenery for the first time. They were parked on a straight bit of highway with nothing but farmland for miles around. A few mechanics, presumably from SOF Ronin, were scuttling about, trying to get Hitman Team’s planes back in working order. 

And to the west, it looked as if the world was ending. For all Prez knew it might as well be. If Kaiser was correct, which she was still hoping he wasn’t, there was a real chance that the destruction of Presidia might cascade into what happened to Prospero only a few days earlier. And what would happen then? Another world shattering calamity like the one that had happened hundreds of years before? 

Prez sighed as she pushed those questions aside and swung herself out of the damaged plane. She couldn’t know where the future was headed. She didn’t even know where she’d be in a couple of hours. Nothing was certain anymore.

Well almost nothing. She had already made up her mind as to how she would respond to Monarch’s proposal. She didn’t even need to weigh her options or put much thought into the decision. It just came to her naturally.

And she knew that Monarch would respect her decision either way when she would go to tell him. But that could wait. 

For now she was content, sitting down beneath the Airplane with her back resting against the landing gear as she watched Presidia burn in the distance. It’s not every day you get a front row seat to the apocalypse after all.

**Author's Note:**

> This was something really quick I hacked out at like 3am just to help me process my feelings on this absolutely wonderful game.  
> I don't know if I'll write more for Project Wingman, and knowing me it would be unwise to make any promises but hey you never know. (Please ignore that ace combat fanfiction sitting there I'm still working on it okay it's just taking a long time ;w;)
> 
> At any rate, I'd like to thank my beta reader Jasper again, who took the time to comb through this mess even though Project Wingman isn't really a hyperfixation of theirs like it is for me.
> 
> And lastly I'd like to thank you very much for reading :3. Please tell me what you think about it in the comments c:
> 
> -Jordan


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